Time Magazine's Man Of The Year!

These Baseball Previews Go To 11 - Milwaukee Brewers

Most of your baseball previews are playing their hearts out but they stop at 10. Where can these other blokes go? We like to push things over the cliff at The Feed though so you know what we do? That's right. We turn it up to 11. Three things to like, three things to worry about, three questions to answer, one kid on the farm and one predicted finish. That adds up to the most powerful preview you can find. Because it goes to 11 and there’s none more louder, really, than 11. Check the rest of ‘em out here.

3 Things To Like

Prince Fielder. Lost among one of the strongest rookie crops of recent memory was the excellent debut season for the somewhat smaller son of Big Daddy himself, Cecil Fielder. He showed the same kind of propensity for the long ball as his old man as well as the same hefty hindquarters. Actually, Prince stole seven bases so he’s a little more agile and is a better fielder as well. This year he’ll try to become the better Fielder.

The trade with Arizona. The Brewers did a good job of maximizing their return on effective starting pitcher Doug Davis. They picked up Johnny Estrada to do their catching, a monumental upgrade on Damien Miller at the plate and an equal tradeoff behind it. They also got two pitchers in Claudio Vargas and Greg Aquino who figure to improve from the change of scenery away from hitter-happy Chase Field.

The rotation. The two Central divisions project to be the most competitive in baseball this season but only in the NL is that a euphemism for “somebody’s got to win the thing.” When you have five teams as tightly bunched as you do in the Senior Circuit, sorry Pirates, pitching can carry the day and no team has a better set of starters than the Brew Crew. Ben Sheets needs to stay healthy and Jeff Suppan got too much money, sure, but those two, Chris Capuano, Dave Bush and Vargas are a top-notch group that will keep the Brewers on top.

3 Things To Worry About

Leftfield. Geoff Jenkins and Kevin Mench aren’t happy about being in a platoon situation even though it is clearly what’s best for the team. If Milwaukee is going to contend for a playoff berth they can’t afford to have the substandard production each man turned in last season so attitude is a big factor going forward. Jenkins kills righties while being killed by southpaws and Mench is righty so a straight platoon is really the only answer. They need to get with the program or GM Doug Melvin needs to find players who will.

J.J. Hardy. The Brewers can get by without the astounding offensive production that Bill Hall gave them at short last season. For one thing Hall is still in the lineup, he’s just playing center, and for another Hardy has a reputation as quite the glovesmith. He needs to stay healthy to turn rep into reality, though, and hasn’t had much luck in that regard. Just 24, Hardy may already be on his last chance and if he goes down again he could find himself checking out classes at local community colleges.

Fielding. Third base is a group situation but none of the Corey Koskie/Craig Counsell/Tony Graffanino trio is going to make you forget Graig Nettles. Hardy has a good rep but Rickie Weeks is a butcher at second. The Prince is okay but the outfield is a mess. Hall is learning on the fly, the leftfield platoon isn’t blessed with amazing range and Corey Hart made his bones with 80’s pop not Maysian fielding talent.

3 Questions To Answer

Can Sheets stay healthy? The LSU product has never lacked for supporters among baseball cognoscenti. He walks less than a batter per nine innings while striking out almost one each inning, the kind of ratio that gets rewarded with Cy Young Awards and pretty ladies on each arm. You need to throw more than 106 innings to get those things, though, and Sheets can’t seem to stay in the lineup long enough to make good on all his promise. If this is the year he does, it could be time to engrave his name on a trophy or two.

Where is Rickie Weeks headed? Considered a can’t miss prospect, Weeks almost did in his first two years. He hasn’t been able to field, hasn’t shown much power or a surplus of patience at the plate that would make leadoff hitting his specialty. He won’t be 25 until this season is over, however, and still has a wealth of tools at his disposal. The Brewers hope he’s learned how to use them as a weapon against the opposition.

How’s the bullpen? Francisco Cordero went from Texas washout to Milwaukee’s Best after the Carlos Lee trade in midsummer brought him north. He supplanted the always-exciting but not always effective Derrick Turnbow at the back of the pen and restored some stability to the job. If Turnbow can bounce back to be an effective set-up guy the Brewer bullpen could be a good one. Brian Shouse, Jose Capellan and Aquino are all useful and experienced relievers and the veteran Elmer Dessens, just picked up from the Dodgers, is a savvy vet with experience in both the beginning and ends of games.

1 Kid On The Farm (For Now)

Ryan Braun won’t do much to help fix the trouble the Brewers have catching and throwing the ball but he will provide some more thunder for the lineup. It won’t be on Opening Day as Braun’s never played above AA but at some point this season Milwaukee will toss out a Braun-Hardy-Weeks-Fielder infield that’s all homegrown and laden with hopes of a brighter tomorrow.

1 Prediction About Their Finish

I’ll confess to being a little crazy about the Brewers over the past three seasons. I’ve been a Sheets guy since day one and have held high hopes for Fielder since seeing a report on him while he was in high school. Bill Hall made me fall a little more in love with his out-of-nowhere remarkable summer and I’m intrigued by the additions of Suppan and Estrada to a team I felt had the core to contend. They’re young but they can pitch and they can hit. If the fact that they can’t catch doesn’t cause them much of a problem I think they can make things happen in the NL. As it is, they are my pick to win the Central.